In the years since his mother's death, Prince William has seldom spoken about his personal tragedy. But when he does, it's to express a deep empathy with others who have also lost loved ones.

"For many, it is a grief never entirely lost. Life is altered as you know it, and not a day goes past without you thinking about the one you have lost," he wrote in the Daily Mail in 2014. "I know that over time it is possible to learn to live with what has happened and, with the passing of years, to retain or rediscover cherished memories."

On November 1, the 33-year-old shared that compassion with a grieving widow in London, finally meeting her in person four years after their first correspondence.

Gillian Molyneux shared that about a week before his April 2011 wedding, the prince wrote her a private letter after her husband, Lieutenant Commander Ian Molyneux, was fatally shot by a Royal Navy sailor who went on a rampage on a nuclear submarine. Her husband had been trying to stop the intoxicated sailor as he fired indiscriminately.

In the letter, William expressed that he could relate to how her children must be feeling, People reports. "He wrote that he could sympathize, because he was the same age as [her son] Jamie when he lost his mother," she told reporters. "I think the intention of his letter was to make us understand that we weren't alone — and it did that."

At the remembrance service for submariners in London, the dad to George, 2, and Charlotte, 6 months, passed along his sympathies in person and inquired about Molyneux's four children, now aged 7 to 18. "He asked me to give the children big hugs from him, which was nice," she said.